If Yanks` Pitching Holds, The Party`s Over In The Al

May 07, 1987|By Jerome Holtzman.

I arrived at Comiskey Park in good time Wednesday night, mostly to look in on the New York Yankees. Almost immediately, I ran into an old friend, Tommy John, the baseball Methuselah who pitched for the White Sox 20 years ago, during the brief and tumultuous Eddie Stanky era.

Old T.J. invited me to a party.

``I`m having a bar mitzvah party for my left arm,`` he explained.

``It`ll be 13 years old this fall.``

John plans to invite as many people as possible, including Dr. Frank Jobe, the California surgeon who rebuilt the arm after the 1974 season.

``Maybe my arm will get a fountain pen,`` he said.

John also revealed that he planned to return the Ken Hubbs Memorial trophy he received this past winter at the Chicago baseball writers` annual Diamond Dinner.

``I didn`t retire, after all,`` he explained. ``So I`ll send it back.`` I told him it wasn`t necessary, that the award was for ``exemplary conduct on and off the field`` and was not contingent upon his retirement.

``Great,`` John replied. ``I`ll keep it in the closet with the two suits Eddie Stanky gave me.``

And therein lies a tale. When Stanky managed the Sox, 1966 and `67 and part of `68, John, then as now, was a sinkerball pitcher. In an effort to motivate him, Stanky promised to buy him a suit every time he got 20 ground balls. There were two other conditions: He had to go nine innings and win the game.

``They didn`t have to be outs,`` John explained. ``A groundball base hit counted. So did a line drive, if it was below my head.``

If the designated hitter rule had been in force, John would have been the epitome of sartorial elegance, with a suit of every fabric and in every color. ``Lots of times I had 17 or 18 going into the seventh inning,`` he recalled, ``but I had to be taken out for a pinch-hitter. We were scuffling in those days. We didn`t score a lot of runs. One night in Boston, I had 23 ground balls but we didn`t win the game.``

I asked if the Yankees were good enough to win it all.

``We`re not as good as the `67 White Sox,`` John said, jesting. ``But we can play.``

Before the season opened, the belief was that the Yankees had everything required of a championship club except the one ingredient essential for victory: a quality pitching rotation. Two of their starters, John and Joe Niekro, were regarded as too old to stand the gaff. Niekro is 42; John will be 44 in two weeks.

Niekro, however, has pitched well and had won one of his two starts before he lost Tuesay night, when Bill Long stifled the Yankees with a two-hit shutout. As for John, he has a 2-0 record and has won his last two starts. He didn`t finish either game but went seven innings in the first and 6 2/3 in the second.

``With our bullpen and our offense,`` John explained, ``all a starter has to do is do a job for seven. Championship teams, and potentially this is a championship team, win a lot of games in the last three innings.``

Charlie Hudson, a comparative pup at 28, has been the star of the Yankee staff. He`s undefeated in four decisions. Rick Rhoden, who like Hudson was acquired in a winter deal, won his third game of the new season Wednesday night. If he stays healthy, he could wind up as the ace of the staff.

Rhoden won 15 games last season with the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates, a remarkable achievement considering the Pirates had neither an outstanding offense nor a good defense. Although the Yankees are off to a slow start offensively--Don Mattingly is hitting .260--the Bombers are solid in both of these departments.

Rhoden is delighted to be with the Yankees.

``I wanted to be traded to a good team, and this is a good team,`` Rhoden said. ``Any pitcher, if he pitches well, can win with this team. And if you`re really in a groove, you could run off a string of wins.``

It also has been surprisingly peaceable. George Steinbrenner, alias King George III, the Yankees` majority owner, has been keeping an exceptionally low profile.

``I`ve just talked to him once,`` Rhoden said. ``He introduced himself and said, `I`m glad you`re with us.` I told him I was glad to be here.``

Of course, it`s early, only one month into a six-month season. Sooner or later, Steinbrenner is likely to erupt. Also, once Rhoden finds his groove and wins five or six in a row, opposing managers are certain to charge that he is scuffing and doctoring the ball.

``I`m not worried about it,`` Rhoden said. ``I just want to start getting a couple people out.``

Which is what he did Wednesday night during a route-going two-hit victory over the White Sox.

It should be an exciting October, with the Yankees winning the World Series, followed by Tommy John`s bar mitzvah party.